Last season, Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra had a talk with Tyler Herro about his role on the offensive side of the ball. Spoelstra wanted Herro to serve as a catch-and-shoot threat from 3-point range, and Herro wasn’t thrilled about that notion at first.
“It was midway through last season, and Erik Spoelstra had seen enough,” Ira Winderman wrote.
“It wasn’t solely about Tyler Herro, but rather an entire team too consumed with a diet of midrange shots.
“So there was a meeting of the minds, even if it didn’t exactly put Herro in the best frame of mind.
“In the immediate wake of the conversation, the Heat guard was not necessarily enamored of his new assignment.”
Herro reportedly said the following after his conversation with Spoelstra.
“I’m a 3-point shooter,” Herro said at the time. “Catch and shoot. That’s what I am.”
But ahead of the start of the 2024-25 regular season, Herro said he was in his “feelings” about his role and has now seemingly bought into being a catch-and-shoot player.
“I mean, I’m actually a really good catch-and-shoot player,” Herro told the Sun Sentinel, as the Heat prepare for Wednesday night’s season opener against the Orlando Magic at Kaseya Center. “I didn’t know that last season, when I was being in my feelings about being a catch-and-shoot player.
“I’m a very good catch-and-shoot player, as well as I am off the dribble. So I think I can do both.”
Herro was one of Miami’s premier 3-point shooters a season ago. He converted 39.6 percent of his shots from deep on 7.9 attempts per contest. But Herro shot the ball with particularly great accuracy off the catch.
The former University of Kentucky standout connected on 43.0 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s a season ago compared to 37.0 percent of his other shots from deep.
Miami seemingly has had a penchant for developing elite catch-and-shoot threats in recent years, as Max Strus and Duncan Robinson both grew into dangerous shooters off the catch with Miami. Strus is no longer with the Heat, but he shot 37.1 percent from 3-point range during his time in Miami.
As for Robinson, he has staked his claim as one of the better 3-point shooters in the NBA today, and he shot 39.5 percent from deep on 7.0 shots per game during the 2023-24 regular season.
While it may be in Miami’s best interest for Herro to take the lion’s share of his 3-point attempts during the 2024-25 campaign off the catch, he should still have plenty of chances to take opposing players off the dribble considering his playmaking chops. Herro is a talented secondary playmaker, as he averaged a career-high 4.5 assists per game a season ago.
Heat fans should be thrilled to see that Herro appears to have come to terms with being a catch-and-shoot threat. It’ll be interesting to find out how efficient he’ll be shooting 3s off the catch in his sixth NBA season.
